PLAYING CATCH - Matt Murray stretches to make a glove save for the St. Albert Flyers in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League. The Flyers (17-9-7) have four games left until the playoffs, starting with today's contest against the KC Centennials at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.

CHRIS COLBOURNE/St. Albert Gazette

AMHL playoffs

The St. Albert Raiders are on the verge of elimination in the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League playoffs after losing Thursday’s series opener against the Sherwood Park Kings.

Game two in the best-of-three opening round in the north division goes today at 3:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.

Game three, if needed, is 8:45 p.m. Sunday in Sherwood Park.

In game one at Sherwood Park the Kings capitalized on the power play in the first period to make it 1-1 and in the third to lead 3-1.

Ty Lindberg scored with the man advantage in the first and Parker AuCoin tallied in the third for the Raiders. Nathan Bizeau assisted on both goals.

The Kings outshot the Raiders 16-7 in the first and 37-25 overall. In net was Pat Dea.

The Raiders (18-11-6) were undefeated in seven games going into the playoffs as the No. 5 seed out of six teams. The Kings (18-8-9) are seeded fourth. The top two teams received first-round byes.

In league play the top defensive team in the north beat the Kings 6-4 in Sherwood Park and 4-2 in St. Albert.

NAMHL playoffs

The St. Albert teams in the Northern Alberta Midget AA Hockey League have advanced to the next playoff round in their respective divisions.

The Blues (24-6-2) swept the Maple Leafs (6-23-3) in their best-of-three Inside Edge series and the Crusaders (22-4-6) were awarded a first-round decision against the last-place West Yellowhead Rockies (0-30-1) in the Clean Harbors division.

The Raiders, ranked fourth out of five teams in the north, visit the first-place Edmonton Lightning (11-3-5) tonight at 6:15 p.m. at Castledowns Arena.

League play ends next weekend with road games against the Calgary Rangers (7-9-6) and Calgary Outlaws (6-9-4).

Atom Lightning

The St. Albert Lightning are a perfect four-for-four in tournaments entering the atom AA provincial championship.

The fourth title in a row was the West Edmonton Mall Family Day Weekend Tournament. The final was a tight 4-2 back-and forth affair against the Saskatoon Wild Lightning as the Bolts finished 5-0.

The Bolts were also victorious at the Jasper Rumble in the Rockies, Whitemud West Go Auto Invitational and Edmonton Minor Hockey Week.

Provincials are March 13 to 16 in Okotoks.

Comments

NOTE: To post a comment in the commenting system you must have an account with at least one of the following services: Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, OpenID. You may then login using your account credentials for that service. If you do not already have an account you may register a new profile with Disqus by first clicking the "Post as" button and then the link: "Don't have one? Register a new profile". The St. Albert Gazette welcomes your opinions and comments. We do not allow personal attacks, offensive language or unsubstantiated allegations. We reserve the right to delete comments deemed inappropriate. We reserve the right to close the comments thread for stories that are deemed especially sensitive. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.